Couple woken by burglars in their bedroom

Neighbour Tony Williams hit out at police today after officers failed to turn up to investigate either of his phone calls.

The 61-year-old fumed: "I'd like to know why, despite two telephone calls to the police, they didn't come - and now these people have been burgled."

Mr Williams says police could have prevented a crime being committed in the first place if they had responded to either of his phone calls, made in the dead of night.

He first spotted two suspicious youths hanging around in Herries Road, Shirecliffe, Sheffield, at around 1.30am on Monday and called the police's 101 non-emergency service.

The youngsters then vanished - only to reappear an hour later.

Mr Williams said: "That's when I called 999 but, again, nobody came out. The next morning I found out my neighbours had been burgled.

"Obviously when I told them I had phoned the police beforehand, they were very upset."

The victims - a man and woman who don't want to be named due to fear of reprisals - awoke in their bed to find burglars in their bedroom, rooting through their things.

When the man got up and tried to challenge one of the youths he fell to the floor, injuring his knee and elbow.

The burglars escaped with cash, car keys, bank cards, and medication.

Mr Williams added: "There are a lot of problems with youths hanging around. Sometimes there are up to 30 or 40 a night. Then the police do a crackdown and it goes quiet for a while, but it starts up again.

"We get lads urinating in gardens, smashing bottles and breaking street furniture."

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "Due to the high volume of emergency calls we were experiencing at the time we were unable to attend at the location."

She confirmed officers were investigating the burglary, but could not say whether the earlier report to the police was linked.